Six Flags Great America (SFGAm) Discussion Thread

[Jojo19799]

Just catching up on some things here, and wanted to add my two cents (take it for what it's worth).

 

She got the height band now and all should be well. I though they usually place an ID card gently on a child's head as a straightedge to see where the child is at. Should be an easy call, but sometimes it is a close call as evidenced by the fact she got on Goliath and Eagle okay. That is why the wristband is a good bet before going on rides just to be sure.

 

When I worked at the park many years ago, we did just that. Take our ride cert badge and gently place it on top of the child's head. Now they have these plastic right triangle things to use as a straightedge. After KT received the wristband Viper ride ops should not have pressed the issue any further. In fact, when I used to work there we had a stamp that we could have stamped the child's hand. So many parents asked for it and if we didn't have one, we would direct them to guest relations to obtain one so they wouldn't have to get measured on every single ride. Kids kept riding and parents were happy.

 

It honestly sounds like these operators get off when they decline a person to ride. There are some people in the world that seriously get a sick pleasure of making someone else miserable and that's exactly what this sounds like. The operator pressed her head down and they still declined after she got a wristband. I'll bet the only thing they look forward to every morning before going to work is how many people they'll deny the ability to ride.

 

As a former ride op I hated telling kids no. Then again I worked at Iron Wolf and I was saving them from head bashing, but I still hated telling kids no. Yes I have had my fair share of kids cry, but I always made a point to look them in the eye to tell them that if they keep eating vegetables and listen to mommy and daddy they will grow faster and be able to ride next year. One child was so upset I just had to give him a hug to try to make him feel better. I did have my share of parents yell at me because their child was too short but that just showed ignorance to me (on the parents part because the kid would always look at mom and dad and wonder what the heck was going on). I actually had to tell a midget that she was too short to ride! Yes a midget! That made me feel worse than anything! So no, I never "got off" when having to decline someone a ride.

 

This whole issue really does come down to training. It seems like today's ride ops are trained differently from when I worked there, and I understand that times have changed since then. Consistency is key in running a park though.

[Mossed]

Hey folks, I will be heading down to Great America on the 21st of August, a Thursday. It's my first trip to the park. Is this a park where I can hit the big coasters all in one day, and still get some time in the water park? Also, how would you suggest navigating through the park, normally I'd start at the back and work my way up.

 

Wishing it wasn't peak season, but the way my trip worked out, I should be able to get a full day at the park. Can't wait for Goliath

[Jodon]

If you get to the park before 10 am and run back to Goliath so you can get on it with out much wait after the park opens, you should be able to do everything and more. If you get to the park at opening or later, the wait for Goliath will be about 2-3 hours.

 

After you ride Goliath, I would head up to Superman. After that, check the line for Whizzer. Oddly enough, Whizzer will have one of the longest lines throughout the day. My nephew and parents waited about an hour for Whizzer last Friday. All of the B&M's outside of Superman have pretty large capacities so you should be able to get on all of those with about a 45 minute wait. Viper can also get a long line, but it is worth it. If Eagle is running 2 trains on both sides, the wait should be pretty minimal.

 

Hope that helps.

[aCoasterStory]

Just curious - has there ever been a case of a child falling out of an adult-sized roller coaster because they didn't meet the height requirements? All I've been able to find are incidents where kids fell out of kiddie coasters because they got scared & worked their way out of the restraints (despite meeting the height requirements), and then cases where teens/adults fell out due to being too big/improperly restrained, intentionally defeating their restraints, or not being fundamentally able to be restrained by the restraints at all (legless veteran incident).

 

With that in mind, how do manufacturers determine the height requirements for a ride? Because sometimes it just seems arbitrary (especially when parks unilaterally decide to raise the minimum height themselves).

[DJeXeL]

There's a few factors that go into play when determine a height requirement for a ride. Most important 2 would be:

1- Restraint system that is used

 

2- G-Forces exerted on the body

[SingleRiderWill]

Going back to the height issue, in 2013 My family went on a trip to Busch Gardens Africa. At the time my younger sister was 47" tall, but we had her wear really thick flip flops, giving her a height just over 48". throughout the whole day we weren't told anything about the flip flops, and she was able to ride a lot more rides than if she didn't wear them. Just a tip about how to meet the height requirement.

[StLCPfan]

^Ride-Ops are supposed to be trained to check for lifts or platform shoes that artificially raise a child to above the ride minimum height.

 

^^^There was an incident at Six Flags St. Louis with a very skinny boy who exceeded the height minimum but his small size allowed him to slip through the shoulder harness and fall out of Batman. The ride manufacturers use "typical" body dimensions for their height minimums in their consideration of what is safe for a particular ride, and this boy was thin enough that the safety restraints did not keep him in the seat.

[Woodie Warrior]

There was an incident at Six Flags St. Louis with a very skinny boy who exceeded the height minimum but his small size allowed him to slip through the shoulder harness and fall out of Batman. The ride manufacturers use "typical" body dimensions for their height minimums in their consideration of what is safe for a particular ride, and this boy was thin enough that the safety restraints did not keep him in the seat.

Where the heck did you hear that? I don't think that's true.

 

Edit: Yeah, I'm 100% sure that never happened.

[Mossed]

If you get to the park before 10 am and run back to Goliath so you can get on it with out much wait after the park opens, you should be able to do everything and more. If you get to the park at opening or later, the wait for Goliath will be about 2-3 hours.

 

After you ride Goliath, I would head up to Superman. After that, check the line for Whizzer. Oddly enough, Whizzer will have one of the longest lines throughout the day. My nephew and parents waited about an hour for Whizzer last Friday. All of the B&M's outside of Superman have pretty large capacities so you should be able to get on all of those with about a 45 minute wait. Viper can also get a long line, but it is worth it. If Eagle is running 2 trains on both sides, the wait should be pretty minimal.

 

Hope that helps.

 

Definitely! Looks like I will wake up early. Now it's setting up a place to stay that's close by and relatively cheap. I think the Holiday Inn down the road will do.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Mossed

[TNT]

Deleted 

[KBrylczyk]

^ But my friend's brother's roommate works as a sweeper at the park and they told me! He also told us to not ride the freefall ride because a girl got scalped when her hair got tangled in the machinery!

[PKI Jizzman]

Had lots of fun at the park yesterday. Goliath was surprisingly gentle! It was a fun ride, very cool inversions. I rode in the very front seat, would have loved to have tried in the back but long long long lines prevented that. I'm weird and like Raging Bull the most, but Viper is also a great ride.

 

The log flume is one of my favorite flumes as well! And hey, check out Timothy OTooles across from the park.

[WallyWorldOrBust]

Sorry this is a bit off topic, but did anyone notice that the park re-themed the Cyber Cafe? I forgot the name but i was at the park yesterday and the building was painted mostly a green color and had a different name. They still have the same stuff that Cyber Cafe offered, but they re branded it.

 

I noticed this last Saturday when I was there. We didn't get anything to eat from the "Fresh Cafe" or whatever it's been renamed, but I noticed it.

[WallyWorldOrBust]

This is an unfortunate situation. The ride op was probably just trying to do his job right, but there should be some consistency between the rides. Don't know how 48" on one ride is not 48" on another. And then the crowd booing is terrible-unfortunately that's the type of crowd that Six Flags gets sometimes.

 

In other (maybe more lighthearted?) news, some guy is trying to sue SFGAm because he was stuck on Superman for 15 minutes:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/07/28/69871.htm

 

The excerpts from the claim that was filed are gold-"Superman: Ultimate Fight", "...became sick and disabled, and will continue to suffer great pain...". I was stuck on Superman for about 10-15 minutes last year in the brake run because of a protein spill ahead of us. It's not terribly uncomfortable, and we got exit passes for our troubles. I'd gladly trade 10-15 minutes suspended on Superman for an exit pass.

 

About Superman....a couple of times right before I've gotten on, the ride has lost power when the train comes in the loading station for about 15-20 minutes and the riders are still stuck in the horizontal position. What I've been told about when something like this happens is because of Vertical Velocity. An operator on Superman told us while we were waiting for the ride to resume was telling us Vertical Velocity is the ride that takes up the most power in the park because of the hydraulics needed to power the train up as quickly as it does. At a certain point during the day, because of Vertical Velocity using so much power, other rides in the park will start losing power. When it gets to Superman, then they know to shut Vertical Velocity down for an hour or so so the other rides can resume operation.

 

Which is why I say Great American could get rid of Vertical Velocity if this is a continuing problem.

[WallyWorldOrBust]

Wow. I didn't know that boarding passes had been going on THAT long. By the way, is line jumping THAT big of a problem that you need boarding passes at SFGAm and not other parks? And if you, for example, are just a little out of order, would they kick you out?

 

Oh yeah, line jumping IS a big problem at SFGAM. I can't tell you how many times over the last five or six years going there when I've seen really rude patrons pushing their way through on Raging Bull & Batman, and you knew darn well they weren't FlashPass holders. But they don't make a huge deal if they're a little out of order. They gave boarding passes on Goliath on Saturday, and gave my fiancee his before mine, but they took mine before his when we boarded.

[DanM64]

About Superman....a couple of times right before I've gotten on, the ride has lost power when the train comes in the loading station for about 15-20 minutes and the riders are still stuck in the horizontal position. What I've been told about when something like this happens is because of Vertical Velocity. An operator on Superman told us while we were waiting for the ride to resume was telling us Vertical Velocity is the ride that takes up the most power in the park because of the hydraulics needed to power the train up as quickly as it does. At a certain point during the day, because of Vertical Velocity using so much power, other rides in the park will start losing power. When it gets to Superman, then they know to shut Vertical Velocity down for an hour or so so the other rides can resume operation.

 

Which is why I say Great American could get rid of Vertical Velocity if this is a continuing problem.

Somebody fed you a line of Grade A crap!! V2 uses LIMSs anyway, not hydraulics. That's not how electricity works! One thing can't "suck power" away from everything else. Either it all works or it all blacks or browns out. If V2 really did effect Superman, they would BOTH go down. One can't just take electricity away from the other.

 

Now my thoughts on the Viper incident. I've lived in Chicagoland all my life and gone to the park as long as I can remember. Those of you who can't see how much worse the operations, customer service, and clientele in the park have gotten over the last few years then you aren't looking hard enough. The ads drive me nuts. Half of the ride operators are lazy. There are more and more of the ghetto/YOLO crowd attending the park than ever before.

 

Robb, I'm sorry what you experienced on your visit, but it's pretty typical IMO. Six Flags is going downhill quickly. This used tk be one of the better Six Flags parks, but I don't think that's true any longer. Hasn't been for the past couple years. The booing sounds typical, too, unfortunately. The cheap season passes plus Six Flags marketing the teen YOLO crowd has brought in a lot more riff raff than there used to be. It's sad, really. I don't even enjoy going to the park that much anymore. I guess that's why despite being only an hour away I still have yet to ride Goliath. I just don't look forward to going anymore.

[coreyb]

I'm looking at going to ride Goliath and a few other new-to-me coasters at SFGAm next week. Will there be much difference in line time on Thursday versus Friday? I'll probably be using single rider lines when I can. Weather looks like it might be better Friday, but if the lines will be longer.... Any advice?

[WallyWorldOrBust]

About Superman....a couple of times right before I've gotten on, the ride has lost power when the train comes in the loading station for about 15-20 minutes and the riders are still stuck in the horizontal position. What I've been told about when something like this happens is because of Vertical Velocity. An operator on Superman told us while we were waiting for the ride to resume was telling us Vertical Velocity is the ride that takes up the most power in the park because of the hydraulics needed to power the train up as quickly as it does. At a certain point during the day, because of Vertical Velocity using so much power, other rides in the park will start losing power. When it gets to Superman, then they know to shut Vertical Velocity down for an hour or so so the other rides can resume operation.

 

Which is why I say Great American could get rid of Vertical Velocity if this is a continuing problem.

Somebody fed you a line of Grade A crap!! V2 uses LIMSs anyway, not hydraulics. That's not how electricity works! One thing can't "suck power" away from everything else. Either it all works or it all blacks or browns out. If V2 really did effect Superman, they would BOTH go down. One can't just take electricity away from the other.

 

 

Well, gee, thanks for yelling at me about it.

[coastercrazy216]

I don't think he was yelling at you. He was just trying to explain it all. To be completely honest, you cant trust most of what operators say. I was at SFOT last Thursday, at the operator at NTAG was saying that the drop was 60 degrees. The operators know about as much about what is going on in the park as the GP does in most cases.

[DJeXeL]

The operators know about as much about what is going on in the park as the GP does in most cases.

 

Sometimes less!

[glouthan]

I'm looking at going to ride Goliath and a few other new-to-me coasters at SFGAm next week. Will there be much difference in line time on Thursday versus Friday? I'll probably be using single rider lines when I can. Weather looks like it might be better Friday, but if the lines will be longer.... Any advice?

 

First of all, welcome to the forums! I don't really think there will be a difference in lines from Thursday and Friday. (I went this Tuesday, and the lines were as long as it would be on a Saturday! Yikes! - proves that the lines are consistent no matter what day it is.) The single ride line is open depending on if the ride operators want it open - it's their decision. Anyways, have a good time at the park and on Goliath! You're in for a treat!

[DanM64]

I don't think he was yelling at you. He was just trying to explain it all. To be completely honest, you cant trust most of what operators say. I was at SFOT last Thursday, at the operator at NTAG was saying that the drop was 60 degrees. The operators know about as much about what is going on in the park as the GP does in most cases.

Correct. Sorry if I came off as rude, that wasn't my intention. Ride operators are generally teenagers most of whom don't know any more than we do. Most of what they say is untrue, I'd take it worth a grain of salt, especially a rumor as far fetched as this one. Superman is 11 years old, V2 is 13. Do you really think they would leave the problem that long without doing upgrades to the park's electrical system if that rumor were true? Granted it is Six Flags, but even they wouldn't be that dumb!

[coreyb]

I'm looking at going to ride Goliath and a few other new-to-me coasters at SFGAm next week. Will there be much difference in line time on Thursday versus Friday? I'll probably be using single rider lines when I can. Weather looks like it might be better Friday, but if the lines will be longer.... Any advice?

 

First of all, welcome to the forums! I don't really think there will be a difference in lines from Thursday and Friday. (I went this Tuesday, and the lines were as long as it would be on a Saturday! Yikes! - proves that the lines are consistent no matter what day it is.) The single ride line is open depending on if the ride operators want it open - it's their decision. Anyways, have a good time at the park and on Goliath! You're in for a treat!

 

I've been reading and lurking for a bit - finally had something that might be interesting to ask.

 

Thanks for the insights! I guess I'll be flexible and not worry about the day of the week.

I haven't been to SFGAm since 1997 - my parents planned trips around parks and coasters, but my wife is scared of most them. My daughter finally is starting to come around after visiting Disney last winter, so we're enjoying the videos. But she's still too small for most of them, so I'm stuck soloing for a while. First new ride next week will be my 50th credit - Goliath would be a great one for that, eh?

[glouthan]

^Goliath will definitely be a great coaster for your 50th. Definitely try both the back and the front rows if you have time, because the both offer completely different experiences. Also, a night ride of Goliath in the front row is very fun!

[beenagins87]

I'm looking at going to ride Goliath and a few other new-to-me coasters at SFGAm next week. Will there be much difference in line time on Thursday versus Friday? I'll probably be using single rider lines when I can. Weather looks like it might be better Friday, but if the lines will be longer.... Any advice?

 

If you can afford it Platinum Flash Pass is the best $110 you'll ever spend, You get 2 rides on Goliath, and pretty much walk up to the station on all others. We went on a Monday two weeks ago, there was pretty much hour wait on everything except Goliath [2 Hours] and we got almost 60 rides in all day. The only downside is American Eagle isn't on Flash Pass for some reason, we didn't ride it that day, but we rode it the day before at about 7 & 8 and only waited about 20 minutes both time.